Page 11 of Colorado Christmas Carol
He glanced at her to see if it was a sarcastic remark, because he’d grown used to them over the years. But it obviously wasn’t. She was flushed with excitement, almost vibrating with it. So was his young passenger in the back seat. He felt . . . odd. New. Different. It was like something shifted inside him, all at once.
He smiled, too. Then he laughed. “I guess you’re right. It is like an adventure.”
“Exactly,” Essa said. “I can’t wait!”
He was amazed to discover that he couldn’t, either. He took a long breath and felt reborn.
* * *
The site was on a hill, and there were several people working there already. Dean led his companions to the man who was obviously in charge. They shook hands.
“I hope you won’t mind two observers,” Dean added after greeting Professor Blake. “They’re fascinated with forensics, and we do have at least one physical artifact here.”
“We found two more this morning”—Blake chuckled—“and we’ll be grateful for your expertise in identifying them. Your companions are more than welcome.” He greeted them. “Dean will tell you what you’re not allowed to do,” he teased.
Essa grinned. “Thanks! This is so exciting!”
The professor sighed. “I wish my students were so enthusiastic,” he said in a confidential tone. “One woman is upset because her manicure is being destroyed by the work, and another is furious because I asked her to stay off her cell phone while we’re working. She reminded me that it’s the holidays.” He shook his head. “Another one is posting everything we find on her social media accounts, with emojis of reindeer, which has led to at least one indigenous group threatening litigation! Times have changed.”
“Oh, yes, they have. But you can be confident that we won’t post any confidential information,” Essa assured him. She smiled. “I don’t have any social media accounts of my own. I just live on YouTube, watching animal videos.”
The professor chuckled. “So does my wife.”
“I like the funny ones,” Mellie said. “And especially the ones about Belgian Malinois. Did you know they can actually run across full swimming pools and even climb trees?!”
“Yes, I did,” Professor Blake told her. “My wife and I have one. He’s smarter than we are. But he doesn’t climb trees,” he added.
“I had a dog once,” Dean murmured, but he quickly turned away, looking for the new dig site.
His companions excused themselves and followed him. Essa was getting vibrations about Dean. She’d been ultrasensitive all her life to other peoples’ emotions and to sound and light. It caused issues from time to time. She sensed that there were horrible things in Dean’s past.
“Here it is,” he called to the others, and motioned. He got down into the pit and studied the skull and partial skeleton with keen eyes.
“Okay,” he told the student who’d just mapped the site and was waiting for input on its skeletal remains. “Male—note the brow ridges—and likely Native American”—he had the skull in his hands and was noting the dentition—“due to the presence of shovel-shaped incisors.”
He put the skull down and picked up first the right and then the left skeletal arm. “He was right-handed—note that the right side of the skeletal remains is larger than the left. Also, the way we deduce the gender of the remains is through examination of the pelvis. To put it simply, it’s larger in a female, smaller in a male.”
He took his time examining the other skeletal remains the students had uncovered, and everyone around him seemed fascinated. Essa certainly was.
“That’s so cool,” Essa exclaimed. “How do you learn all that?!”
He grinned from ear to ear. “From hard work and a lot of time spent with my nose stuck in a book.”
“Or in a dig pit,” the student taking notes said with a glance at the professor. “For hours on end!”
“It goes with the title of forensic archaeologist,” Dean chided the student. “And yes, it’s worth all the agony.”
“Where did you study?” the student asked.
Dean glanced at his watch. “My goodness, did you say you had to be back by six?” he asked Essa. “I’m so sorry! We’re going to be late! We’d better leave.”
“Time goes by too fast,” she wailed.
“We only just got here,” Mellie added.
Dean chuckled. “It’s been an hour,” he told them. “But I’m glad it seemed like just a little time to you two.”
“Come back when you can,” the professor told him. “You’re a great help!”
